In recent years, many large circulation periodicals have appeared which require rapid handling of portions of the periodicals consisting of signatures which are gathered for binding, trimmed, bundled for minimum shipping costs, and shipped. A typical operation utilizes a multitude of inserter pockets, each of which receives signatures seriatim from a signature supply means, opens each signature, and drops the signatures to successively straddle a gathering chain which runs in front of the inserter pockets and carries the complete collection of gathered signatures to a location for further processing to complete the binding process. Moreover, because of the need for highly efficient plant operations, there has been a constant effort to increase the speed at which machines operate which has required the development of new techniques for handling the signatures at all stages of the binding process.
In addition to high speed operation, many large circulation periodicals are now demanding a degree of flexibility that has heretofore been considered impossible. This is particularly true, for instance, where the periodical wishes to include one or more personalized messages or other customized information or the like, but this must be done without significant reduction in the cyclic rate of operation that would otherwise decrease plant efficiency thereby increasing costs while possibly failing to accommodate the high volume presently produced by the U.S. printing industry which requires that the most efficient possible use be made of manpower, equipment and plant space. Furthermore, since the need for individualized message printing is sporadic, the equipment to achieve this objective should be compatible with a normal bindery line.
In the past, the only known manner of printing an individualized message on an internal signature in a binding operation has been less than entirely satisfactory. More specifically, it is known to print such a message or information on such a signature, provided this is done only after the signature is on a binding line conveyor which means that, due to the high speed operation of a binding line conveyor coupled with the fact that the backbone travels in the direction of travel of the conveyor, any such printing had to be parallel to the backbone (see, for instance, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,121,818 and 4,395,031). While this has sometimes been found to be acceptable for certain applications, it would be most desirable to also be able to print in a direction perpendicular to the backbone.
In other words, by printing in a direction perpendicular to the backbone, it would be possible to provide individualized messages oriented in a normal fashion. Thus, the individualized message could be incorporated directly into text already on a given page of a signature where it would appear that the original printing of the signature had incorporated that message. In this manner, large circulation periodicals could achieve a degree and level of flexibility that has heretofore been considered impossible.
Most recently, truly successful apparatus and methods for individually printing signatures during delivery to a binding line conveyor have been achieved These apparatus and methods are fully illustrated, described and claimed in commonly owned and copending patent application of Gunnar Auksi for: "Apparatus and Method for Individually Printing Signatures During Delivery to a Binding Line Conveyor," U.S. Ser. No. 224,332, filed July 26, 1988, and commonly owned and copending patent application of Mayer et al. for: "Apparatus and Method for Individually Printing Signatures During Delivery to a Bindery Line," U.S. Ser. No. 557919 , filed July 25, 1990, U.S. Pat. No. 5,080,337. Despite the achievements of the apparatus and methods of these earlier filed applications, it has remained to further the availability of commercially satisfactory techniques.
More specifically, these apparatus and methods tended to operate, in other respects, as conventional inserter pockets. This was quite effective but, in even more recent times, there has been a growing awareness of certain additional problems in terms of the productivity of binding lines, especially certain ergonomic problems such as carpel tunnel syndrome, that are often experienced by binding line employees. As for these problems, it will no doubt be appreciated that they exist whether or not ink jet printing is required and/or utilized.
Moreover, these problems are known to exist regardless of the technique of feeding the signatures to the binding line. Thus, it would be highly desirable to provide a new and improved apparatus for feeding signatures to a binding line in either a shingled stream fashion or one-at-a-time fashion. Still additionally, it would be highly desirable to further enhance the versatility as well as the productivity of signature feeding in a binding line.
For this purpose, it will be appreciated that any apparatus that was proposed necessarily had to be compatible with the limit on the space that is available in a binding line facility. In development of the present invention, it was established as a goal for the signature feeding apparatus to primarily address concerns in terms of ergonomic problems such as carpel tunnel syndrome and the like, but it was found that in solving this problem it was also possible to increase capacity for stacked signatures within the same or a similar amount of floor space while operating at high speed and accepting signatures in a variety of different ways, e.g., by conventional human interface, log loading, and/or robot supply. Still additionally, such an apparatus was found to be capable of operation at high speed and to be capable of accommodating ink jet printing perpendicular to the backbone.
The present invention is thus directed to overcoming the foregoing problems and achieving the resulting objects as established by the development of the unique signature feeding apparatus described herein.